Blocking and Perfect Blocks
The act of stopping an attack with a shield or magick shield is known as Blocking. Once the core skills Deflect (Fighter and Assassins) or Reflect (Mystic Knights) are learned Perfect Block's become available - these are well timed blocks that can reflect damage back to an attacker, with strong a knockdown effect. Blocks Holding the shield in front serves to block many attacks including melee, arrow, and some spells such as Ingle. Stamina recovery is halted whilst blocking, and every block also drains a little stamina. Stamina consumption on blocking is independent of the the strength of the shield. Blocks can be broken by either attacks that are too strong, or when stamina is totally exhausted by blocking. Standard blocks with a shield cannot inflict debilitations with a Rusted Shield, and Enchanted shields do not generally damage or inflict secondary effects, either. However Magick Shields enchanted with ''counter type spells will return elemental damage to attackers even if the reflect skill has not been learned, and with a Rusted Magick Shield standard blocks can poison and torpor, but only when it has been enchanted with a counter spell. There is a hidden stat ("Blocking Ability" or "Stability") that governs how strong an attack a shield can block without the block being broken. A shield's blocking ability appears to be independent of the Arisen or Pawn's Defense, Stagger, or Knockdown resistances; blocking against attacks does not seem to be broken by cumulative attacks (unlike being staggered). Each shield appears able to reliably defend against attacks of certain power, but above that power the block will always be broken. For example, a Round Shield can reliably block a road guard's (Soldier) light attack (Onslaught), but cannot resist their heavy attack (Empale). On enhancing, dragonforging, or rarifying a shield may gain ''Improved Blocking Ability''' allowing it to resist heavy blows. For example, at 3* enhanced, a Round Shield becomes able to resist the Empale attack of road guards. The augment Periphery also improves the blocking ability, Perfect Blocks To be able to Perfect Block Fighters and Assassins must have learned the core skill Deflect; and Mystick Knights must have learn the core skill Reflect. Shield bearing characters with only the basic core skills Defend or Repel are unable to perfect block at all. A Perfect Block activates when the block button is depressed at the precise frame when an enemy attack connects with a character's Shield or Magick Shield. Success is signified by a white flash and a brief time-dilation effect ("slow-motion"), both of which differentiates a regular block from a Perfect Block. Unlike regular blocks, Perfect Blocking expends no Stamina. The ability to successfully Perfect Block without being overwhelmed is affected in the same way as the Blocking ability of the shield affects the ability to normally block. If the guard is broken whilst attempting a well timed block the 'white flash' effect of the blocker will indicate the good timing, but secondary effects will generally not be triggered. Perfect Blocking generally causes a strong knockback effect to small and medium-sized enemies in front of the shield, whilst the effect on larger foes can cause staggering and will eventually contribute to a knockdown. Even with an un-enchanted shield a reflected melee blow can cause significant damage to the assailant. Fighter and Assassin For Fighters and Assassins a Perfect Block with an elementally enchanted shield such as a Scorched Pelta or Dragon's Roost has a less powerful and dramatic visual effect than that of a Mystic Knight's elemental riposte, but it still damages the enemy, causes knockback and can inflict elemental damage. An enhanced Rusted Shield can also inflict torpor or poison with enough perfect blocks. Elemental damage can be temporarily bestowed on Assassin- or Fighter-wielded shields via enchantment buffs. The existing element of an enchanted shield such as a Scorched Pelta or Lambent Shield can be temporarily overwritten with an elemental buff from a Mage, Sorcerer or Mystic Knight. A permanently enchanted shield has strong debilitating power - however this power is much reduced when the shield is temporarily over-enchanted. (See Elemental Debilitation.) Broken perfect blocks do not inflict debilitations or damage. Mystic Knight When perfect blocking with a Magick Shield that has not been overenchanted with a spell the effect is much like that with a normal Shield. A Magick Shield's inherent elemental property, such as a Thunder Kite Shield or Lustrous Greatshield has no real effect on the damage or effects from a perfect block - there is an exception when the shield is overenchanted with Demonswrath. The magick shield cannot be enchanted by spells from a supporting Mage or Sorcerer (such as Fire Boon) -such spells only affect the Knight's primary weapon. However both enchanted and unenchanted shields can be given a useful elemental enchantment with a Mystic Knight's elemental Counter, Riposte, and Feint spells; in addition to the other specialized Magick Shield spells. A Mystic Knight that Perfect Blocks with a shield enchanted with a ''Counter, Riposte, or Feint spell will trigger a powerful Elemental counter in addition to a very powerful knockback effect - see Mystic Knight Shield Counters. When the Magick shield is so enchanted the initial reflected attack also changes in form - it only strikes the attacker, and not all in the frontal arc, and incorporates some magick power, though it is still mostly physical in nature. perfect goblins threes.gif|A perfect block strikes in a wide frontal arc perfect ox.gif|Against enemies that cannot be knocked back there is still a strong knockdown effect File:Thundercounter_perfect_arrow.gif|Ranged attacks such as arrow strikes can be perfect blocked, and, with a suitable enchantment such as thundercounter the conjured counter spell will target the foe even at distance File:Thundercounter_perfect_spit_thundershock.gif|Even Saurian spit can be perfect blocked - here the conjured Levin spell also causes Thundershock on the Saurians Broken perfect blocks for Mystic Knight will not trigger riposte spells, but can still inflict elemental damage when the shield has been enchanted with a counter type spell, just as is obtained from normal blocking with the same spell. Perfect Blocks also allow Demonspite and Demonswrath to charge faster, and enchanting with these spells activates any shield's innate elemental enchanmet (such as Lightning from teh Thunder Kite Shield) allowing to also do some magickal damage on perfect blocking. Perfect Blocking gives better healing from Holy Aid and Holy Grace, and allows Holy Grace to heal past 'white' damage. Related Skills A number of skills allow variants of riposting, parrying, or countering attacks if done with good timing. Enemy blocks Foes will block but do not generally perform perfect blocks. Enemies such as shield bearing Bandits and Skeletons and shield wearing goblins block attacks and Saurians can block using their spears. Additionally some foes can take up a guarding stance, notably Ogres as well as Cyclops which crouch and cover their faces with their fists - when an Ogre guards it takes no damage from direct attacks, just as if it were using a shield. Notes *The term "Perfect Block" is from the skill descriptions for Demonspite and Holy Aid. *Perfect Blocking is made easier (that is to say, the window of opportunity is increased by five frames) by the Fighter augment Prescience. *Pawns are capable of performing Perfect Blocks and will utilize them often. It can be very helpful to watch a good Fighter pawn in action to demonstrate the necessary timing to correctly perform a Perfect Block against different enemy attack animations. *Enemy spells such as Comestion, Levin and Frigor can be Perfect Blocked. *Some Mystic Knight Shield Counters increase the time window in which a Perfect Block can be performed, but Holy Aid, Holy Wall and the Demonspite based spells do not have easier Perfect Blocking. *Both normal and perfect blocks can inflict debilitations or trigger elemental effects such as thundershock - the frequency of elemental secondary effects is not increased by enhancing or rarifying. **Perfect Blocking increase the rate of debilitation by around 20-30% compared to an equivalent but poorly timed block. *Some Magick shield enchantments benefit from perfect blocks - Demonspite charges far more rapidly, whilst Holy Aid recovers more health. *The Rusted Shield, Rusted Magick Shield, Wooden Wall, and Magick Buckler all have particularly poor guarding ability and are often unable to block even weak blows from small foes such as goblin. *For specific damage details see Skill multiplier data. (also Damage Calculation.) **The damage from Perfect Blocked counter and riposte enchanted shields is in two stages - a close range shield blast followed by a element specific spell - for more details see Mystic Knight Shield Counters. **The Dark Arisen Bonus Enhancements arm armor enhancment "Boosts the power of normal and magick shields" increases perfect block damage. Category:Concepts Category:Shields Category:Magick Shields